The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Walkthrough and FAQ for the Mages Guild Quests
Written by: Nick Bartosic
This file is Copyright (c)2006 Nick Bartosic. All rights reserved.
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Table of Contents
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1. About Me
2. The Guide
3. The Game
4. *NEW* Tips for Being a Mage *NEW*
5. Joining the Mages Guild
6. Teekeeus's Quest
7. Adrieene's Quest
8. Carahil's Quest
9. Dagail's Quest
10. Kud-ei's Quests
11. Falcar's Quest
12. Jeanne's Quest
13. The Arcane University
14. Miscellaneous
15. FAQ
16. Credits
17. Copyright Notice
18. Contact Information
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About Me
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This is my second FAQ I'm writing for GameFAQS, and also the second FAQ I've
written period. With that said, any help would be greatly appreciated
( constructive criticism that is ). I'm a recent Software Apps and Programming
graduate from ITT Tech, and it was actually my professor that first got me
interested in the Elder Scrolls games by introducing me to Morrowind. Since I
heard about Oblivion, I was very eager to get my hands on it.
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This Guide
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Version 1.0
March 28, 2006
Filled in introductory info
Added information for joining the Mages Guild
Added quest information for Teekeeus, Adrieene, Carahil, and Dagail
Version 1.1
March 30, 2006
Added quest information for Kud-ei, Falcar, and Jeanne
Version 1.2
March 30, 2006
Added the beginning quest for the Arcane University
Added a tip in the FAQs section about the Dragon Tongue and Redwort
Version 1.3
March 31, 2006
Added another quest to the Arcane University, small update =P
Version 1.4
April 1, 2006
Added 3 more quests to the Arcane University section
Make some updates to the Cheydinhal recommendation quest, the Bravil
recommendation quest, and a few typos.
121 e-mails about my Mage and Thief FAQS!
Version 1.5
April 3, 2006
Added 2 more quests to the Arcane University section
Version 1.6
April 3, 2006
Added another 3 quests to the Arcane University, one left to do
Version 1.7
April 5, 2006
Added the final quest for the Mages Guild
Added a Tips section, as well as some stuff in the Misc section
Whole lot of e-mails to go through, additional information coming soon
221 e-mails after a little over a week, for both Mage and Thief FAQS!
Version 1.71
April 17, 2006
Added a bunch of little tips and updates to quests, and fixed typos
Received at least 400+ e-mails on my two Oblivion faqs =P
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This Game
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Version 1.0
March 21, 2006
Bethesda releases Oblivion for the PC
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Tips for Being a Mage
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*1*
The first tip I have is, by far, the most important. Make sure you learn it
if you haven't already. Save, Save, SAVE! This means save frequently, and
save using more than 1 file! I can't TELL you how many times
I'll get e-mails with people that have gotten stuck on something, or they run
into a bug (Which can be expected with a new game). Often times by reloading
to your last save, or a previous save (Provided your last fresh save file isn't
over 15 hours old) you can fix a problem. This can help you get out of many
jams, including ones where you are suspended from the Guild and need to do
the annoying collection quests to get readmitted. Some of you will consider
this "cheating" by some stretch of the imagination, but Bethesda encourages
frequent saving as well. With a new game like this, do yourself a favor and
just do it to avoid yourself some headache, if you want a challenge run the
difficulty bar up and get to higher levels...
X-Box 360 users, I've been told that your cache memory will often screw with
quests if you run into a bug, so not only will you need to reload to a previous
save when you encounter a bug, you have to make sure to restart your console
and clear your cache, this will fix problems many times.
*2*
First learn rule numba 1 =)
*3*
Keep a staff or two handy at all times. If you're a pure Mage, chances are
your melee skills will be ghastly. At higher levels, you'll probably run out
of magic and get a royal beating if you're not crafty. A good attack staff can
finish off any enemies that may be left once your magic is depleated. You can
find some in Rindir's Staffs in the Market District of the Imperial City, as
well as many other locations such as the corpses of other casters =)
*4*
Avoid battles with melee enemies if you can, the best way to do this is to keep
working on your Destruction skill and learning new spells as you go. I like to
find nice long hallways and open spaces when I fight, that way I can walk
backwards while I blast, and keep the melee guys out of range. If you have to
pull them a great distance, do it. At higher levels, you may need all the
distance you can get.
*5*
Avoid trying to melee casters, for the reason I just stated above. Often times
when you're fighting casters, especially the Necroes you'll meet, they
won't like to get in close quarters with you, they'll often run away if you
try to get close for a stab. A great way to handle these guys is to Paralyze
them, or Burden them to a point they can't move. Silence will often do wonders
for you here too. If you don't have a way of doing either of these things,
then remember to try your COnjuration skill out and summon something to tank
for you, and use Destruction spells to blast from a distance. Your staff will
be a good item to use too if you run out of Magicka. If you're handy with
Sneak, I do encourage Sneak Attacks though, since they can make battles go
much quicker, heh heh.
*6*
Make your own spells. Once you've gained access to the Arcane University
(You've gotten all the recommendations) you can begin to make your own spells.
The door is the farthest one to the left within the University, or the north
most door I believe. Go to an alter, and the rest is all pretty basic from
there. For most spells, you need to know some variation of the spell first
before you can make a new one! For instance, if you want to create a Frost
spell, you'll need to have learned at least some form of Frost spell already.
From there, you can tweak the strength how you like it, but remember that the
stronger the spell, the greater your knowledge of its spell school you'll need
before you can make and cast it. So, if you make an ungodly powerful Frost
spell, you'll probably need 75 or 100 in Destruction before you'll be able to
use it.
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Joining the Mages Guild
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*****Quest: Joining the Mages Guild*****
There isn't much you really have to do to become a part of the Mages Guild. If
you stop in any of the major towns on your map, if they have a Mage's Guild
there, you should be able to join. For purposes none other than my own, I'll
start with the Mages Guild leader Teekeeus in Chorrol. Find him inside the
Chorrol Guild Hall, and ask him about the Mages Guild. He'll ask if you're
interested in joining, in which case you should reply with a yes. Boom, you're
already a part of the Mages Guild, no contest you have to partake in like the
Thieves Guild, heh heh.
You become an Associate within the Mages Guild, and now can begin accepting
quests from the Guild leaders in the other towns. You cannot enter the Arcane
Library in the Imperial City though. You need to solicit the recommendation of
each Guild leader in the towns on your map, when that is done you'll gain
access. Teekeeus will give you a Mages Guild charter, read it if you wish.
Theres a lot of info in there, but nothing out of the ordinary. Basically if
you commit crimes against the guild, you'll be suspended and may only be
readmitted to the guild if the big-wigs allow it. It also has a list of which
Guild Halls have specializations in which branches of magic. They're listed
as follows:
Alteration - Cheydinhal
Conjuration - Chorrol
Destruction - SKingrad
Illusion - Bravil
Mysticism - Leyawiin
Restoration - Anvil
N/A - Bruma
If you wish, you can now ask Teekeeus about getting his recommendation for the
Arcane University. Obviously he won't give it to you without doing something
for him first, so he'll give you a quest (See the next section).
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Teekeeus's Quest
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*****Quest: Fingers of the Mountain*****
When you ask Teekeeus about getting a recommendation to the Arcane University,
he decides he wants you to run an errand for him first. It appears a former
member of the Mages Guild is wandering around town, and it worries him greatly.
Apparantly this Earana likes to spread lies about Teekeeus and the Mages
Guild, and it seems that Teekeeus and Earana have a bit of a history if you
ask the other Guild members. Anyway, Teekeeus wants you to find out what shes
doing snooping around town, and find a way to make her leave. Make sure this
is your active quest, then follow your quest marker to find Earana in town.
When you speak to her, ask her about the Mage's Guild and all that, and
eventually she'll spill the beans why shes there. Apparantly theres a book
with some very valuable information to her nearby, to the north of Chorrol.
The book is known as The Fings of the Mountain, and was spotted on top of
Cloud Top, which is up in the moutains/hills. If you retrieve the book for her
she'll be satisfied and reward you, so go ahead and accept. She mentions that
you shouldn't mention your encounter to any of the other Mages Guild members...
you don't have to though. If you tell Teekeeus right he'll tell you not to
return the book to her. He believes the book is too powerful, and is worth
more than the petty squabble he is having with Earana.
When you're ready, start heading north into the hills. You should have a
marker on your map now pointing out Cloud Top, but you won't be able to
instantly travel there yet. Its not too difficult to find, you'll be able to
follow pathways to get there easily. Just keep following your quest marker and
you'll come to Cloud Top. Near some pillars you should see a charred body of a
man, on the body you'll find the Fingers of the Mountain you were looking for.
Take a look at the lovely scenery from on top of the mountain, then click on
Chorrol on your map and instantly head there.
You now have a few options you can do with the book. First, you can do
what Earana said and give her the book. She'll give you instructions on how to
use one power described in the book (After you wait 24 hours). If you told
Teekeeus about the book, you'll HAVE to give him the book...but there is a
third option. If you told Teekeeus about the book, you can give Earana the
book first, let her study it for a day, then when she gives you the reward
head back to the Gray Mare in town and you'll find the book locked in her room
at the inn. Take the book, give it to Teekeeus, and the quest is done.
*UPDATE* Theres a 4th option I'm being told that you can use to complete
this quest. If you give the book to Teekeeus first, then talk to Earana,
she'll be pissed off. She'll still be willing to give you the reward
though. If you steal the book back from Teekeus and give it to Earana,
she'll give you the reward but you still have to wait the 24 hour period.
It seems you may need to tell Teekeeus about the book either way to get
the recommendation, so just make sure both Earana and Teekeus touch the
book at least once. Thanks to Nexus for pointing out the 4th option, and
thanks to Nadia for the typo.
You can head back to Cloud Top to get the reward if you want, but it isn't
necessary. The spell you get is a leveled spell, so the higher the level you
finish it, the stronger it will be. It won't level with you either. Any way
you decide to finish this quest, you should get Teekeeus's recommendation
for the Arcane University. You should be done with Chorrol now
when it comes to the Mage's Guild. You can skip to any of the Mages Guilds
in the other towns outside the Imperial City. If you want to continue
following this guide in order, lets check out Skingrad, home of Destruction
magic, hee hee.
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Adrieene's Quest
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*****Quest: Skingrad Recommendation*****
When you get to Skingrad, scope out your map to find the Mages Guild. If you
haven't already joined, talked to Adrieene Berene to join the guild, just look
at the information I posted in "Joining the Mages Guild" section to figure out
what you need to say. When you ask her about getting a recommendation for the
Arcane University, she wants you to take care of a little matter for her (Go
figure). As it seems, there was an incident...with a member of the Mages
Guild. Basically a Scamp summoning spell that went awry. As a result, this
Mage named Erthor was kicked out of the Guild Hall. He still comes back twice
a week to check in, but he hasn't been back in some time and Adrieene needs
some notes he has. She'll tell you to talk to Sulinus Vassinus to find out a
little more information.
Find Sulinus in the Mages Guild Hall, and he'll elaborate a little more about
this Erthor fellow. He'll also mention that he is currently living out of a
place known as Bleak Flats Cave. Sulinus won't know exactly where the
location is, but if you ask Druja the Argonian she'll give you an exact
location and pinpoint it on your map. She'll tell you to talk to Adrieene once
more to remind Adrieene that Erthor was banished to the Bleak Flats Caves. If
you mention this to her, she'll give you a Weak Fireball spell for free, and
send you on your way.
Bleak Flats Cave is north by north-west from Skingrad's Western Gate (Hows that
for directions?). If you talked to Druja, you should have a quest arrow you
can follow to find your way there. Prepare for a few battles inside, I ran
into 8 or 9 Deranged Corpses/Zombie things which packed a real punch. I was
even wearing Heavy Armor at the time. I used this cave as a way to begin
training up my Destruction and Conjuration abilities, as well as Restoration
when I needed to heal. I'm sure the monsters within the cave will be scaled to
your level, so you should be able to take them down one at a time if you're
smart. I picked out my targets, used my new Weak Fireball spell, then began
walking backwards while I casted some more. Eventually if I ran out of
Magicka, I moved my way back toward the entrance where I could either step out
to heal, or move in a circle while I waited for Magicka so I could blast a
zombie. The cave itself is very linear, you can't screw it up. There is only
only path to get to Erthor, the other way is currently blocked by a large
boulder. Make your way through the cave blasting zombies, eventually you'll
find the guy you're looking for. He'll thank you for coming to his rescue, and
he'll ask for an escort back to the Mage's Guild. Go ahead and accept, then
head out using the western most path (Toward the boulder blocking your path
from before). You'll notice a lever that raises the boulder, hit it and you
can take a semi-short cut. Make your way to the entrance, head back to town,
and take Erthor to see Adrieene. Once shes convinced hes unharmed, talk to her
and she'll thank you for a job well done. If you ask her about the
recommendation, she'll mentions that she'll send it to the Arcane University
soon.
Another recommendation in the bag, five more to go! You're done with Skingrad
now, I suggest picking up some of the Destruction spells here before you leave
though, I'm sure they'll come in handy later. If you don't have the cash, the
Thieves Guild is a good way to make a little extra coin (Check out my other
FAQ). You can also do some random dungeon crawls by wandering through the
wilderness. You also might want to train your skills up a bit so you're
prepared for the future quests. When you're ready to move on, lets make the
long trek to Anvil, home of the Restoration magic masters.
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Carahil's Quest
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*****Quest: Anvil Recommendation*****
When you get to the Guild Hall in Anvil, you'll meet with Carahil, the Guild
Leader in this town. She won't beat around the bush with you at all, she'll
probably already know you're looking for a recommendation and mention something
about it. Ask her what she wants you to do already, and she'll explain. The
Countil of Mages has entrusted her (Shes putting it off on you) to investigate
a string of murders along the Gold Coast. Appranantly a Rogue Mage has been
slaughtering merchants traveling up and down the road, the frost burns on the
victime give him away. The Council won't stand for this, so you must track
down the Rogue Mage and bring him to justice. You're first location to check
out is the Brina Cross Inn which is north of Anvil, and seek out Arielle Jurard
there. If you continue to pester Carahil some more, she'll probably give you
some frost resistance scrolls. Take them, I have a good feeling we're going to
need 'em. When you run out of topics to ask her about, make your way north to
the Inn. Be on your guard, however, Carahil mentioned the Brina Cross Inn was
the only link in all of the murders, so it could be a staff member there that
is involved with the homicides.
Make your way to the inn, when you get there look for Arielle. She'll whisper
that you should talk to the inn keeper and rest for a moment until she comes
for you to discuss the plan. Do as she says, speak to the inn keeper and hear
a little more about the recent deaths. Rent your room, go on up and rest for
a few hours. When you look up, Arielle will be there. Speak to her and she'll
unveil the plan. You are to rest up, then in the morning you'll make your way
east down the Gold Coast road. Everyone in the area seems to have heard you're
a merchant, so hopefully you'll be sufficient bait. Arielle and another Battle
Mage will be tailing you, remaining out of sight. If and when the murderer
presents himself, Arielle and her partner will come to your aid while you try
to seek justice. When you've gotten all the information, rest until 8 or 9AM
and head outside. Arielle will already be waiting for you, but don't try to
talk to her or the Battle Mage. Whenever you're ready, start heading up the
road. You won't have to go far before you see a familiar face...use the
scroll Carahil gave you in Anvil right away, and speak to the person in the
middle of the road. A battle will ensue, but since you have some backup it
shouldn't be too rough. When justice has been served loot the body, then make
your way back to Anvil. Speak to Carahil and she'll thank you for bringing
peace to the Gold Coast, if only for a short time. She'll also mention that
she'll sign off on your recommendation, so if you've been following my guide
you should be 3/7 done now. Moving on, lets hit Leyawiin to the east, and
we'll work our way north to the other two Guild Halls. Leyawiin is home to
lots of Mysticism magic, so whenever you're ready begin the long trek to
Leyawiin.
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Dagail's Quest
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*****Quest: Leyawiin Recommendation*****
When you get to Leyawiin, look for the Guild of Mages south of the Chapel.
This Guild Hall is a little...strange and disappointing to say the least.
It doesn't seem to be a powerful Guild Hall. Nevertheless, begin talking to
Guild members and get up to speed on the situation. It seems the current Guild
Leader, Dagail, is getting a little senile. She once was a great mage that saw
visions, but now shes fruit loops. If you speak to her (Well, I wouldn't call
it speaking, its more like crazy talk) she'll make mention of an amulet. Speak
to Agata to find out more about it. It seems Dagail has had these visions for
some time, and she always had an amulet she kept with her to keep herself in
control. She has lost the amulet though, so now shes a rambling fool. Agata
wants you to ask the other guild members if they've seen the amulet. Talk with
a few, be sure to ask Kalthar though. He'll make some mention of Dajail's
father, who was also able to see visions and went slightly insane. Kalthar
seemed to have a lot of info...better keep an eye on him.
Go talk to Agata again and she'll make sure to keep an eye on him. Agata wants
to know more about Dagail's father and if he might have had an amulet on him
that we could use to replace Dagail's old one. Speak to Dagail and you'll find
out that her father was once stationed in a fort nearby. Your map should now
update, prepare for the long trek, and bring your bashin' sticks and spells.
The fort has been overrun with bandits and marauders which are scaled to your
level. You could get some good loot from this quest, but you'll also be
fighting lots of enemies with armor and sharp pokey things. Take whatever
precautions are necessary, check out Rindel's Staves in the Imperial City, if
you don't have a nice Staff of Fire, or something equivalent, pick one up.
The fort is located south-east of Leyawiin, about the same distance from town
as your previous three quest stops. There will probably be a bandit outside,
he should be a good test to see if you'll be able to handle what lies below.
I pulled out my Weak Fireball spell again and blasted him, always moving
backwards while I cast, and if I ran out of magic occasionally I'd turn my
Staff of Fire on him to finish him off. Theres not much to this dungeon, you
just have to take your time and try to kill them one at a time. If you get
into a jam, pull out a Staff for some quick damage to save your skin. Try to
rely on your own spells though, you need to increase your skill levels so you
can get to better spells. When you enter the fort you'll notice a large metal
gate to your right. You can't open this yet, so don't worry about it. You can
use it to escape the dungeon once you're done. Work your way through the fort,
heading towards your quest arrow. The location of Dagails father's tomb is in
the Halls of the Fort. While you're in there you'll eventually come to a room
where there are several caskets and probably a nasty Minotaur and Will-o-wisp.
These creatures may be different for you, because they seem to be leveled, so
just be prepared for a fight. Thanks to Gul Cratt on these leveled badies.
I treated both these fights just as the previous ones, blasting them while I
walked backwards. The Minotaur was tough, but no more so than a bandit for
me.
When you've cleared the room, loot the caskets and you'll find the amulet
you've been searching for. Don't celebrate just yet though, make sure you
heal up and then have full Magicka. As you're leaving the tomb area you'll run
into none other than Kalthar. It seems he was the one that stole Dagail's
amulet, to work his way up in the guild. He gets rather angry that you foiled
his plans, and he decides to take him on. Whatever you do, make SURE you let
Kalthar speak, because it seems if you drop him before he speaks his piece,
you WON'T be able to complete the quest. This fight may be a breeze for you,
it may not. I fought Kalthar at level 16, and I don't think he was scaled to
my level. I wasted him pretty quick and didn't even bother with the pet he
summoned. When you finish him off, loot his body for some items, then leave
the tomb area. Remember that gate near the beginning of the fort that was
locked? If you keep heading in a northern direction from the tomb you'll end
up there, another semi-short cut to get you out.
Head back to Leyawiin and check in with Dagail. As soon as you hand her the
ring she regains her sanity and begins making sense again. She'll leave you
with a few prophetic words of wisdom, then says she'll sign your recommendation
for the Arcane University. As you know, that means we're done with Leyawiin
now, on to the next wonderful side quest. We have three locations left
to check out, hit Bravil since its the closest.
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Kud-ei's Quests
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*UPDATE* Several people have confirmed for me that you do not need to do this
quest to get your recommendation from Kud-ei! It just so happened that when
I first spoke to Kud-ei it was at night, and she didn't seem to want to talk
to me about any recommendations at that time. If that happens to you, you're
more than welcome to use this guide to help you do the quest. I'm going to
go ahead and leave this in here for now. Thanks to Caffo for being the first
to point this out.
*****Quest: Through a Nightmare, Darkly*****
When you get to Bravil, the Mages Guild will be south of the Chapel. Not much
to do with the other guild members, so go straight to the head of the chapter,
Kud-ei. If you've spoken around town at all, you might have heard in rumors
that Kud-ei was in desperate need of some help. You can't ask her about a
recommendation yet, shes much to worried about her friend, Henantier. Agree to
help her out, because it seems no one else will and we need her recommendation.
Speak to her about Henantier, and eventually she'll come out and say that her
friend isn't missing, she knows exactly where he is. As it turns out, her
friend was a study mate with her in the Mages Guild, and he likes to perform
experiments in his own home, which is against the rules of the Mage Guild. He
has never been one to follow the rules, so even though hes on the brink of
being thrown out, hes gotten into a jam once again. Tell Kud-ei you'll help
her, then follow her to Henantier's house.
When you get inside, you'll find Henantier upstairs asleep...or so you think.
Henantier is actually trapped in a Dreamworld, he got there by creating a magic
amulet that would let you control your dreams, and take all the skills from the
real world with you. Basically he wanted to use this place as a training
ground to hone his skills. Your mission is to take the amulet, head into this
uncharted Dreamworld yourself and rescue Henantier. Kud-ei can't go because
only a stranger will be able to get through to him, otherwise he'll dismiss
anyone he knows as figments of his imagination. So, when you're ready, Kud-ei
will remove the amulet from Henantier and give it to you. Place the amulet on
yourself and go to sleep on the other bed in the room. Make sure you make a
fresh save before going in, and a few while inside.
When you come to, you'll be in Henantier's Dreamworld, or a nightmare to be
correct. It seems hes gone slightly made inside, and he has no idea why hes
there, how he got there, etc. If you notice, when you arrived in the
Dreamworld you came naked and can't cast any of your spells. Talk about
crippling a character! Henantier lost some items (Like his mind) and so we
need to go around his Dream house and go through a series of tests before
we can get out of there. Know that if Henantier dies while you're in the
Dreamworld, you will die too!
I began with the Test of Perception, located on the same floor you begin on.
Take a look at the window, and you'll notice the gate there which should be
this test. Go inside, and you'll be in a large cavern-like area with a
floating stone walkway. To your left you should see a container called
Perception with a torch inside, go ahead and grab it (You don't have anything
else anyway). You must follow the glowing red crystals to get to the purple
orb you see floating up to your left. There will be many traps and such as
you progress through this place, and you can get hurt so watch your footing.
The first thing you'll notice is swinging blades to your right. Time your
movements so you avoid getting hit, then slide ahead to the next task. There
will be two things on the floor ahead, one springs a trap of falling boulders
and one is a device that spews out harmful gas. Stay away from both of these
as best you can. The next section you'll have to be very careful, large
guilotines will drop down from the sky! Wait for them to drop, then as they
raise back up move on through. Be careful though, as you get to the last one
there will be another trap on the ground that drops boulders. The next section
will have several buttons that will trigger a crystal to fire on you when you
step on them. It should go without saying that you should avoid these too =)
Finally you'll get to the end where the orb is, grab the Perception and you'll
be taken out of this first test and back to Henantier. He doesn't seem too
perceptive yet, so we'll have to move on to the next test. If you got hurt at
all during this test, you can go downstairs in Henantier's house and grab some
healing potions from a cupboard that says "Heal Yourself."
Go ahead and do the Test of Courage next, this one is easier than you might
think. This test is downstairs on the first floor, through a wooden door to
your right once you get downstairs. This test involves a lot of swimming, and
you may get disoriented while you do it, so make sure you make a fresh save
before you go down just in case. When you first get inside you'll find a
box to your right, grab the Potion of the Sea inside. Head forward and you'll
find a waterway that eventually gets deeper and you'll have to dive below.
This waterway will travel straight ahead at first, and gradually will shift
direction so you're swimming straight downward. You can drink the Potion of
the Sea before you dive in, or you can wait for your air to expire a little
bit before you take a sip. About halfway down you'll find another container
with another Potion of Sea inside, grab that on your way down, you may or may
not need it. Keep diving down and eventually you'll find a door that leads to
the Grotto of Courage, with a red orb. Grab it, test is done.
The next test I chose was the Test of Patience, or as I like to call it, the
Test of Following a Map. This test is back upstairs, its a small door near the
bed. When you get inside there will be another container for you, this one
will hold a Mysterious Scroll. This will be your map so to speak for the traps
that lie ahead. It does in order of the traps you find, so the first diagram
will be for the first trap, second diagram = second trap, etc. The key to
using the diagrams is to figure out which symbol is the "safe" symbol. Up
ahead you'll notice several pillars and tiles on the ground. If you look at
your diagram, you'll notice there are as many tiles as there are symbols on
your scroll. The key for the first trap is to look for the symbol on your
scroll that looks like a backwards comma ( , ). If you don't laugh at my ASCII
map here, I'll show the path you need to take along the tiles:
---------
|*| | | |
---------
|*| | | |
---------
|*|*| | |
---------
| |*| | |
---------
The next set of tile traps is a little farther ahead, and this one is a little
more difficult. The symbol for this one looks like a "4." Heres another map:
-------------
| | | | |*| |
-------------
| | |*|*|*| |
-------------
| |*|*| | | |
-------------
| |*| | | | |
-------------
| |*|*|*| | |
-------------
| | | |*| | |
-------------
Alright, you should be able to see the orb in front of you now, only one more
obstacle to tackle! This set of tiles will have you going all over the place,
and theres a few pillars in the middle of this one. If you happened to run
your way through the last two traps, chances are you won't have the health to
make it through the 3rd, heck, you probably can't make it through anyway. The
safe symbol for this one is one that kinda looks like a + sign with a crown or
flower upon it. Heres the map for this one:
-----------------
|*| | | | | | | |
-----------------
|*| | | |*|*|*|*|
-----------------
|*|*|*|*|*| | |*|
-----------------
| | | | | |*|*|
------- -------
| | | | | |*| |
-----------------
| | |*|*|*|*|*| |
-----------------
| | |*| | | | | |
-----------------
| | |*| | | | | |
-----------------
If you have some amazing jumping power, you probably could take some short-cuts
through a few of these, but I just thought I'd put up the easy safe routes for
you. Anyway, once you're through the final maze you'll be at the orb. Grab it
and the 3rd test is done. You'll be wisked back to the crazy Henantier, one
test left to go. Downstairs is the ominious Test of Resolve.
This test is rather simple, well, all of these tests aren't too bad compared
to the last one in the fort. When you get inside this test, look for your
friendly container. Inside you should find some very good armor, there will
be full sets of both Heavy and Light mail for you, choose which ever you're
most skilled with ( Heavy or Light armor ). The armor is scaled to your level
so for some it may be Ebony, for others it could be Dwarven. Thanks to
Gul Cratt for first mentioning the scaling to me. Theres also some weapons,
choose whichever you're most suited with. I picked up the Staff of Lightning
for some quick, powerful blasts from a distance. Don't worry if you can't
carry all of this, you'll lose it all when the Dreamworld is over. Be sure
to equip all your gear, then head through the gate into a Colliseum like
atmosphere. Inside you'll find two Dreamworld Minotaurs, shouldn't be too
tough. If you have a staff, move backwards and blast them into Oblivion. If
you don't use the staff you'll have to stand toe-to-toe with them, something
I decided against. When you're finished with them, a set of stairs will move
up, leading you to the Orb of Resolve. Rather easy, eh? If you've collected
all the orbs at this point, speak to Renantier and he'll regain full memory
of what has happened. You will both wake up then, the nightmare being over.
Henantier will thank you for everything you've done, and although he doesn't
have any coin he'll give you a few scrolls. If you speak to Kud-ei again, she
seems to have some more odd jobs for you before she'll prepare your
recommendation. Speak to her again, and she'll give you a quest.
*****Quest: Bravil Recommendation*****
So Kud-ei has some more problems. I'm not positive, but you may not even have
to help her with the Henantier quest. If you haven't heard around town that
Kud-ei has a problem ( Meaning you haven't asked people about any Rumors ),
you may be able to skip right to this quest. As it turns out, one of the Guild
girls, Ardaline, is getting pestered by a man named Varon Vamari. Hes gone so
far to steal her Mage's Staff. Shes a little shy and doesn't know how to talk
to people, so Kud-ei wants you to approach Varon and take the staff back for
her. Just keep asking Kud-ei about Varon, the Mage's Staff, and Aradaline and
she'll fill you in on all the information you need. She'll also give you a
Charm scroll to use on Varon, that way you can persuade him to give you the
staff back.
Once you have the quest and the scroll from Kud-ei, check the quest arrow on
your map or radar to find Varon. Hes probably in Silverhome on the Water, but
if not just follow the quest arrow. When you find Varon you can persuade him
to raise his disposition, you can use the charm scroll Kud-ei gave you, and/or
you can do a combination of both. Either way, talk to him about Ardaline and
her staff, and you'll find out what happened. Varon likes Aradaline very
much, but whenever he talks to her about it she won't say anything so it made
him angry and he stole her staff. To make matters worse, he didn't know how to
go to her and apologize and return it, so he sold it instead! What a great way
to show your affection. Anyway, he says he sold it to his friend Soris Arenim
in the Imperial City, in the Talos Plaza district. Go back and talk to Kud-ei
and she'll give you a few more charm scrolls before you leave. Head straight
to the Talos district or wherever your quest arrow points for Soris. I tried
to persuade and charm him, but it seems he paid good money for the staff and
he wasn't willing to part with it. If your persuade is high enough, and you
charm him, you can buy it off him though. My preferred way is to steal it
though, heh heh. Find a way into Soris's basement, either by sneaking,
wait till hes not watching, or get the key to the house.
*UPDATE* If you want, theres a key to Soris's basement on the second floor.
If you sneak or invis up the stairs, unlock the door to the 2nd floor, you
can find a key upstairs that will do a lot of the dirty business for you.
Either way you'll probably have to unlock at least one locked door if you
want to get the staff back for free. Thanks to Nate for providing info
about the key. If you want, it seems you can buy the staff off Soris for
the sum of 200g, but for the first time in the game I wasn't able to
persuade him to do that, so thats why I ended up stealing it. Thanks to
mjwatson for letting me know you can buy it off him.
You're going to have to pick a few locks, so either have a spell or scroll
handy to do so, or hopefully you're handy with a pick. The staff
will be in a dresser with a Hard lock, open it up and grab the staff.
When you're finished, head back to Bravil and present the staff to
Kud-ei. She'll make sure she passes the staff along to Ardaline, and she'll
thank you for all the work you've done. She'll also give you a low level
Charm spell you can use, not a bad way to boost a magic skill. She'll also
say you've earned your recommendation, yay! If you've been following along
with the guide, there should be only two more recommendations to seal before
we're through, so pack your bags and get ready to hit Cheydinhal.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Falcar's Quest
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
*****Quest: Cheydinhal Recommendation******
This quest is pretty easy and won't take too much explanation, so I'll make it
quick. Find the Mages Guild south-east of Cheydinhal's Western Gate. You're
looking for Falcar, the head of this particular chapter. He may not always be
accessible, sometimes hes down in his room in the basement, behind a door that
is locked by a key. Wait around till morning or midday and you'll find him.
He doesn't seem to keen on signing a recommendation, but tell him you're ready
and he'll give you a task anyway. Falcar wants you to return a ring to him
that another Associate happened to lose, but this isn't just your ordinary
ring, this is a Ring of Burden Falcar was experimenting with. He thinks the
Associate that lost the ring did it on purpose and threw the ring in the well
behind the Mages Guild. He wants you to return the ring, and tells you to
talk to Deetsan if you want a key to the well.
Go find the Argonian, Deetsan, wandering around the Guild Hall. If Falcar is
still in the immediate area she won't give you the key, so just wait around
till he goes back downstairs, or Deetsan moves somewhere else. Shes rather
surprised Falcar gave you this task, as the last Associate to attempt this
never returned. Deetsan warns you to be careful, and try to find out what
happened to the other Associate, Vidkun. She'll give you a scroll or spell
that helps you to water breath, as well as an added bonus of a Feather spell
so the ring doesn't have as much of an affect. I should warn you that if you
don't have at least 150 lbs. free in your inventory, you should make room
anyway. If you can't cast the spell yet, you'll need the room to carry the
ring because its heavy! After Deetsan gives you the key, head around back to
the well and jump in. Use the spell she gave you if you can, then begin
looking for a floating body. Looks like we found our Vidkun, he must have
gotten encumbered and couldn't swim anymore and drown! Nab the ring off him,
grab the alchemy room in the other corner of the well if you're collecting it,
then return to the stairs you came from to exit the well.
*UPDATE* Its been brought to my attention that you don't need to take the
ring back to Deetasn at all! All you have to do is pick the ring up once off
the body of Vidkun, and your quest should be updated, nothing more to do.
To those people that entered the sewers, didn't get the ring, then came back
3 days or more and Vidkun's body was gone...I can't help you =( This may be a
bug, but I think his body vanished like anyone elses after a few days. To
complete the quest, you'll have to add the ring to your inventory using the
console. The command is:
player.additem 0002E5AC "1"
Once you've touched the ring, you can drop it, the quest info should update
then. If you have an Xbox, I'm sorry but you'll have to reload unless Beth
comes up with a patch. Thanks to Carro for the information on the ring.
When you return to Deetsan (Falcar isn't around) she'll let you know something
bad has happened. It looks like Deetsan approached Falcar about the task he
gave you, because she felt it was too dangerous and Falcar has been a real
jerk lately anyway. He started spouting some gibberish and told her that the
Guild was all going to pay, then he stormed off. She wants you to check out
his room and look to see if he wrote your recommendation and look for
anything unusual that migth be down there. Head downstairs, Falcar's room
will be the door on the left among the two. Inside you won't find a
recommendation, but you will find a locked dresser. Open it up and you'll
find two Black Soul Gems...hmmm. Take them to Deetsun, she'll be very
worried about this. She says in lieu of what has happened, she will write
your recommendation, it should be enough to convince the Council. She'll
also include the mysterious Black Soul Gems. One more recommendation to go,
now we just need to head to Bruma.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jeanne's Quest
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
*****Quest: Bruma Recommendation*****
OK, there was one recommendation I was going to overlook, the one in Bruma. I
figured you only needed the six from the towns that specialized in the six
forms of magic. Anyway, go head out to Bruma and find the Mage's Guild in the
northern part of town. Talk to Jeanne Frasoric here, the current Guild Head
for this chapter. She'll seem a little different than previous Guild members,
she doesn't seem like the bookworm type. Anyway, she'll be happy to help you
with a recommendation, but first she wants a small task from you. This quest
doesn't take long either, believe me. She wants you to find a Guild member
named J'skar. It seems he disappeared a few days ago, and if she doesn't find
him soon and a Guild representative shows up, it won't look good on her. She
suggests asking around the Guild Hall to find out what you can.
You can speak to the alchemist, Selena Orania. She'll know about a trick
J'ksar is playing on Jeanna it seems, and she also knows that Volanaro is
involved somehow. Go seek out Volanaro, and if you look beside him you'll
probably see an invisible J'ksar standing there. You're going to have to boost
your disposition with Volanaro if hes going to fess up anything, so do some
persuasion and/or use a Charm spell or scroll on him. Eventually he'll admit
that he'll help you find J'ksar, but first he wants you to help him play a
prank. He wants you to go upstairs to Jeanne's room and look a Spellcraft
book from her desk. Agree that you'll help, and head off to Jeanne's bedroom.
The book is in her desk, protected by an easy lock. Pick the lock or cast a
spell on it and grab the book. If you check it out, it seems to read like
"The Idiot's Guide to Spellcrafting." Head back to Volcar and give him the
book in the Living Quarters after 10PM. He'll thank you, then J'ksar will
remove the spell of invisibility he had on. It seems the two Guild members
hate the way Jeanne lords over them when her knowledge of spellcraft is rather
limited, so they like to play pranks on her to make up for it. Since they
had to end their current prank, they decided stealing her Spell book would
be a great way to start a new one. In any event, you're done now, go talk
to Jeanne again and let her know J'ksar is visible again. She'll thank you
and provide you with your recommendation.
If you've been following the guide, Booya! We should have all of our
recommendations now. Time to check out what goodies the Arcane University
has in store for us. Make a trip to the Imperial City, you'll find the Arcane
University in the south-eastern part.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Arcane University
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
When you get to the Arcane University, you should have recommendations from all
7 Guild Halls throughout Cyrodiil. Head into the Arch Master's Lobby and look
for Raminus Polus. He should acknowledge right away that you've received all
your recommendations. Speak to him about the Recommendations and he'll give
his congraduations and welcome you to the Arcane University. You are now able
to make your way around the place, but you have something to do first. Raminus
gives you the Robe of the Apprentice and promotes you to Apprentice for getting
this far (About time we got a promotion, heh heh). He also tells you that
every good Mage carries a staff, so its now time for you to get yours. He
points out a place called the Wellspring Cave, which is due north-east. He
says you should seek out Eletta and Zahrasha there, they tend to the place and
will have an unfinished staff for you to collect. Once you have one, you'll
be able to enchant it with whatever you wish.
*****Quest: A Mage's Staff*****
Head to the Wellspring Cave, and be prepared for a fight. If you haven't
picked up an attack staff of any sort, like the Staff of Fire at Rindar's
in the Market district of the Imperial City, you should probably get one.
Inside the cave you'll find Zahrasha's dead body, and a Necromancer next to it!
The Necro will waste no time attacking, so pull out whatever attack magic or
weapon you have and lay into him/her. You're going to have to contend with
lots of Necroes here, so that means lots of fights where its you against 2 or
more attackers, so be prepared for dodging and try to focus on bringing the
Necroes down quickly, don't worry about the pet. If you get low on Magicka
and can't melee attack, run around the room a bit to avoid the Necro and his
pet while your Magicka builds back up. Once you finish off the first Necro,
be sure to loot Zahrasha's body once to get a quest update, then again to
receive a key off her. There will be 5 or so other Necroes in this cave, kill
them all and then heal up.
At the end of the cave you'll find a locked door that requires the key you got.
Make sure you're prepared for another fight, this time you'll probably have to
fight two Necroes at once, as well as any pets they summon. If you have spells
that target a radius area, you may be better off using those, or a staff with
a strong attack. By the way, if you happen to fall off the island, or decide
to try and kill the Necroes by jumping off, you can get back onto the island
by climbing up the south-western section, BMoney has provided an image where:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/Foyada/Games/aa61d323.jpg
There will be one other Necro outside when you finish off the
first two, kill it and you should receive a quest update. Make sure you check
out Eletta's body, then look at the stone chest in the middle of the island.
You should find the unfinished staff you were looking for. You should be done
here, return to Raminus in the Arcane University and give him the bad news.
Raminus is rather shocked the Necromancers have made such a bold move lately,
and hes sorry to hear of the murders of Eletta and Zahrasha. He'll tell you
that you should go ahead and get your staff enchanted, so he tells you to see
Delmar in the Chironasium. If you enter the door to the Arcane University area
(Previously inaccessable to you), the Chironasium will be the second door from
the right. Go there and talk to Delmar. This is where you get to do some
enchanting, sweet. Talk to Delmar and he'll be ready to enchant your staff for
you. He'll ask what kind of staff you want, the choice is up to you. I went
ahead and compiled a list of what staves he can make you, you can thank me
later, heh heh.
*UPDATE* It seems that the stats on these staves are not true for all!
It seems they are related to your player's level. For instance, Andrew
Yin told me the Staff of Soul Trap he received was a 20 second Trap, not a
40. I doubled checked by doing the quest again and came up with 40 once
again. So, I'm lead to believe this quest will be different for each of
you, sorry I don't have any information for other levels =( These stats
I'm posting are only for a player in the level 17 range:
School of Destruction Staves
Staff of Fire - 80 Fire Damage to Target - 40 Charges
Staff of Frost - 80 Frost Damage to Target - 40 Charges
Staff of Lightning - 80 Lightning Damage to Target - 40 Charges
School of Illusion
Staff of Paralysis - Paralyze Target for 8 seconds - 40 Charges
Staff of Charm - Charm 25 pts for 25 seconds - 40 Charges
Staff of Silence - Silence a Target for 15 seconds - 40 Charges
School of Mysticism
Staff of Soul Trap - Soul Trap a Target for 20 seconds - 40 Charges
Staff of Telekenisis - Use Telekenisis 40 feet 40 seconds - 40 Charges
Staff of Dispel - Dispel Target 40 pts - 40 Charges
Sander Land tells me that the staffs do 20 damage for levels 1-4, 40 damage
for levels 5-9, 60 damage for levels 10-14, and 80 for levels 15+. Once you
get a staff, it won't "level" with you, so it will always remain the same
in power. Also, the Illusion and Mysticism staffs have similar changes
like the Destruction staffs, but I'm not going to post them all. If you
want, Dario sent me a link to a mod that will level items like this for you
so they stay close to your level. This will alter the game difficulty, so
its up to you whether you want to use it or not, I had no use for it myself:
http://www.oblivionsource.com/?page=modforge&op=viewproject&project_id=220
Choose whichever staff you which, I went with a Staff of Lightning, mainly
because I already had a weaken Staff of Fire. Call me childish, but that 80
damage and 40 charges was just too much to pass up. Granted, when your staff
runs out of charges, its going to be very costly to repair (Or require some
serious Soul Gems), but I thought it would come in handy for some fights. Wait
24 hours and Delmar will have your staff done, he'll put it in the cupboard
behind him. Take it, and the quest will be done. Go talk to Raiminus to
continue on.
*****Quest: Ulterior Motives*****
When you check back in with Raiminus, he'll have another task prepared for
you. If he hasn't already, he should make you a Journeyman, congrats.
He wants you to head to lovely Skingrad and speak with Count Janus
Hassildor. If you are unfamiliar with Hassildor's nature, hes a well known
vampire (A true to life Count Dracula, eh?) Anyway, Raiminus wants you to
collect a book from him that the Arcane University gave him awhile ago and he
hasn't returned. Raiminus will probably also mention that Mercator Hosidus is
the Count's steward at the castle, so you should look for him first when you
arrive in Skingrad.
Head off to Skingrad, which you'll find west of the Imperial City. Head up the
trail to the castle, and look for Mercator in the Skingrad Castle County Hall.
My, this guy is a bit arrogant and rude, isn't he? He'll see that you're from
the Mage's Guild, and will be less than thrilled about it. He'll mention that
the Count doesn't want any visitors, but he'll try and convince him otherwise.
He'll then ask you to return in one days time. If you want, plop a squat right
there in the County Hall and wait for 24 hours. When a day has passed,
Mercator should still be in the room. He'll approach you and say the Count has
agreed to visit with you, but he'll only see you after 2AM, and he wants you to
meet him outside the West Gate of town, north of the Cursed Mine...hmm...meet a
vampire outside at 2AM away from the guards...sounds like fun. Just make sure
you're not late.
I showed up at 1:30AM, just wait by the quest marker if you feel like it.
Shortly after 1:30 I noticed Mercator approaching me, with two black robed
figures coming behind him. This doesn't look good. Mercator will tell you he
never intended to contact the Count about your meeting, and that Mercator was
in league with Necromancers, which obviously don't care for the Mage's Guild
too much. He then lets you know that he'll dispose of you now, but he'll make
sure to use your corpse as a pet later. How wonderful! Well, its going to be
3 on 1, not counting any pets the Necroes summon, be prepared. Mercator will
start swinging at you first, I suggest summoning a Scamp or something to keep
a few of your enemies preoccupied. Sometime during the battle a man will come
to your aid, and by some surprise its the vampire Count himself. I suggest
watching where you swing/cast your spells in this battle, I've been able to hit
the Count a few times and get away with it, but I'm sure he won't be so happy
if you stab him a few hundred times. This can be a tough battle, I mostly ran
around the general area, trying to break up the necroes and Mercator so I
could finish them off one at a time without hitting the Count (who doesn't
seem to help you much). I summonded Scamps and Zombies to help do some
damage and tank for me, and when I had any spare Magicka I healed. Use your
new Mage's staff if you have to, one with damage will help greatly in this
battle, one with Paralyze or Silence can also be useful.
When you finish off all three enemies, the Count will speak with you. As it
turns out, thie was never about some "book" to begin with, if you didn't
already figure that out. The Mages Guild wanted you to check in on the
Count because there were rumors of Necroes in Skingrad. The Count will
explain a little more, convinced that you had no idea why you were really
there to begin with, and you should be convinced he wasn't working with
Necroes. You will then part ways, and head back to the Arcane University.
Speak to Raiminus again and let him know what happened with the Count. He'll
apologize that he didn't let you know exactly why you were going, but it seems
the Mages Guild has an alliance of sorts with the Count. The Count may be able
to hide the fact from most people that hes a vampire, but the Mages Guild can
see through him. To protect himself, the Count struck up an accord with the
Guild so both parties could mutually work together. Its a shacky alliance, so
when word of Necromancy in Skingrad was heard, the Council of Mages wantede to
make sure the Count was still on the up and up. Anyway, Raiminus will give you
a nice new necklace you can wear, a Spelldrinker Amulet which will provide you
with a constant 18 pts. of Spell Absorption as you wear it, sweetness. On top
of that, he'll promote you to Evoker if you ask him, we're movin' on up in the
world! He'll have another task for you, so speak to him whenever you're ready.
*UPDATE* This amulet may not be 18 pts for you, as this item seems to be level
related like the staves are. If you're near level 17, your amulet should have
about 18 pts on it like I've reported, otherwise it will be different =)
*****Quest: Vahtacen's Secret*****
Raiminus will have another task for you, but he wants you to talk to Irlav
Jarol to get the details. You can find Irlav on the 2nd floor of the Arch
Mage's tower there, so use the portal to go on up. Speak with him, and he'll
tell you that hes been unable to check on a little side project of his, due to
all the craziness with the Necroes lately. He wants you to go to Vahtacen for
him and check up on things, to see if you can help the research going on there.
Vahtacen can be found south of Cheydinhal, west of the Reed River on your map.
Before you go, I suggest you have 4 spells in your inventory, or find them
before you take off. You'll need some form of fire attack spell, an ice attack
spell, a spell of Fortify Magicka that works on a target, and a spell of Damage
Magicka that works on a target (Theres one called Sever Magicka that works).
If you cannot find these spells, at LEAST get an ice attack spell, because in
the cave you can find three scrolls with the other spells you need right there.
When you have 4 spells of these kind, go ahead and head to the cave.
Inside Vahtacen you'll need to seek out Skaleel first, an Argonian with the
Guild. She'll be skulking because Irlav has been neglecting their research,
unable to come himself to help out. She also feels that her talents would be
better spent elsewhere...yet she can't solve this simple puzzle =\ Anyway,
listen to her groan for a bit, then go look for Denel further down. He'll be
doing his best to decipher the Ayleid Symbols on the walls, but he can't get
anywhere without the book Skaleel possesses. Go back up and convice SKaleel to
hand over the book, then return to Denel. Now we can begin to take care of the
puzzle. In the next room you'll notice a large pillar (Its really a giant
keylock). You'll also notice four crystals nearby, each with a little phrase
that goes along with it. Check out each of the phrases for the 4 crystals, and
then ask Denel to translate each of them. They'll go basically something like
this:
av molag anyammis - Fire
av mafre nagaia - Frost
magicka loria - Damage Magicka
magicka sila - Fortify Magicka
If you didn't get the spells you needed, you'll find a chest next to Denel
that will have all the scrolls that you'll need, grab them all for the pillar.
So, you can guess what you need to do now. First go to the crystal that is
known as "Fire" or "av molag anyammis." Cast your fire spell at the pillar,
and you'll notice it begin to move. Next go to the crystal known as "Frost" or
"av mafre nagaia," and cast your Ice spell of course. Third, check out the
crystal for "magicka moria" and cast your Damage Magicka spell at it. Finally,
go to the last crystal and cast your Fortify Magicka spell at the pillar. The
puzzle should be solved now, speak with Delen a moment and he'll ask you to
brave the depths of the Ruin and find something of value, so we don't return
to Irlav empty handed. There are a few beasties down below, mostly just
several Wraiths, but nothing that you shouldn't be able to finish off with
your magic and Staves.
First you'll have to fight a few Wraiths, no big deal. You'll come to a room
afterwards, take a look at the floor. You'll probably notice a large tile
in the middle of the room with holes in it...don't step on that, walk around
edge of it. If you stay on the tile too long in the middle, it will actually
drop down pretty far onto a bed of spikes, lovely. Continue on, the ruin is
pretty linear here, so just keep going forward. You'll have to hit a button
or two to open the way forward, and maybe open up some crypts with Wraiths
inside. Eventually you'll come to a room with large cages suspended from the
ceiling, your quest arrow should point to the middle of the room. I don't
know for sure what exactly the cages were for, other than for show, I just made
sure I watched where I walked =) If you walk to the back of this room, on the
2nd floor you'll find a button. Hit it, and stairs will drop down in the
center of the room. If you climb those stairs you'll find the item you're
looking for, an Ancient Elven Helm. You may or may not need to hit the button
next to the Helm to acquire it, I hit the button and was hit with a magic trap,
but I assume you can just take the helmet without hitting it.
You're done here now, theres two ways out of the place. You can head back the
way you came I believe, or you can head back to the 2nd floor where you hit the
button to drop the stairs, and you can take a short-cut back. You will have to
fight a couple battles on the way out if you take the short-cut, one was a
nasty battle with a Nether Lich which you may want to avoid. According to
Sasha Van Eijk this is another leveled battle, so you may have something
stronger or weaker to fight, either way you'll see a few guys. When you get
back to Denel, show him what you found and he'll want you to show it to Skaleel
as well. The Argonian will be surprised we actually figured out the puzzle
(No thanks to her), and she'll tell you to head back to Irlav. I was half
expecting to get jumped by Necroes or even Skaleel herself down there, but it
seems everything was hunky-dorey. Exit the cave, then head back to the Arcane
University and talk with Irlav. He will thank you for doing his dirty work for
him, and he'll tell you to go talk to Raiminus again. If you ask Raiminus
about Advancement at this time, he'll promote you again to Conjurer, woot.
He'll also present you with some nice Robes of the Conjurer, which provide a
constant 5 Bonus points to your Intelligence and Willpower, as well as 6 points
to your Conjuration and Destruction. How nice is that? This robe may have
slightly different stats for you, as it may be level related like the previous
Mage rewards. Speak with ol' Raiminus again and he'll have another task for
you when you're ready.
*****Quest: The Necromancer's Moon*****
Raiminus and the Council need more information about the Necromancers, but it
seems Tar-Meena in the Mystic Archives has been rather swamped lately with all
the requests shes been getting from the Council already, so Raiminus wants you
to ask her about something more specific. He wants you to find out something
about the Black Soul Gems we discovered in Cheydinhal with Falcar. Head on
over to the Mystic Archives then, I believe its the 2nd door from your left
when you enter the Arcane University. Speak with Tar-Meena, and she'll tell
you some more how busy she is and asks that you find the book yourself cause
she has no clue where its at. This one is easy, if you look to your right
if you're just entering the Mystic Archives, you'll find it on a desk in front
of the bookshelf. Pick it up, read it if you like, then speak with Tar-Meena
once again. Blah, blah, blah, listen to what she has to say, then foot it on
over back to Raiminus. You know, it would be nice if the Arcane University
would provide some transporation around campus, maybe a bike or a golf cart.
Anyway, eventually you'll have to speak to Bothiel about the Shade of the
Revenant I believe. You'll have to follow your quest arrow, but when I found
her she just happened to be standing next to Raiminus at the time. She'll
provide some clues on the subject, as well as a note she happened to find
that Falcar left behind. Speak with Raiminus once more, and he'll want you to
check out the Dark Fissure, one of the places listen in the Necromancer's Moon.
There will be Necroes there, if you couldn't tell, so prepare for a few battles
by recharging your staff, making some room in your inventory for loot, whatever
you have to do. To get there, its actually just east by south-east of
Vahtacen, which you just came from. You can Fast-Travel to Vahtacen if you
wish to save yourself some time, but the Dark Fissure is kind of up in the
mountains, so you may need to do some climbing. To get there, I kind of took
a round-about way. I went north-east from Vahtacen through Hero Hill, and up
to an old fort. From there, I traveled south and south-west over the mountains
until I was just above the Dark Fissure. I then slowly walked my way down the
mountain and to the alter and cave entrance.
*UPDATE* The mob you're looking for in this cave is called a Worm Anchorite
I believe. He/she should drop a "Handwritten Note." I think I found her
right inside the door, once you get the note you don't need to go any further.
If the note doesn't drop off anyone, your game may be bugged! Reload from
a previous save and try again. Also, as far as I know, it doesn't matter
what day you go to cave to get the note. Some people thought they might have
to wait for the Heavenly Lights to appear or something, don't worry about it =)
If you don't want to go in the cave, you can't wait till Freedas, Jester says,
and the Worm Anchorite will come right outside between 12 and 2 AM.
As soon as you get inside, you'll probably be able to see two Necroes right
away. One may be called a Worm Anchorite, this is actually the only mob you're
looking for in the whole place. I got REALLY annoyed with these guys, I
decided to go melee on them since they were squishy cloth wearers, and they
insisted on running away from my aweome magical power and staff blasts...a lot.
These guys wouldn't stand still for me for a second, they liked to summon a
creature to hack at me, while they ran screaming the other direction, with me
swinging my Elven shortsword with fire in my eyes. Anyway, enough imagery for
you. If you drop the Worm Anchorite and loot the body, you should find a
Handwritten Note, which should update your quest info and tell you to return
to Raiminus already. You can wipe out the rest of the Necro cave if you
feel like it, I did. I didn't find anything of great value, but I decided
not to continue on deeper into the Dark Fissure Caverns, which is through
a door to the right once you enter the Dark Fissure cave itself.
Return back to Raiminus whenever you feel like it, and present him with the
note you picked up in the cave. The quest is now done, if you ask him about
Advancement once more he'll promote you to Magician, wooooo! No sweet gear for
Magicians it seems though, we're stuck with our amulet and robe. At this time
Raiminus has no more quests for us, if you ask him about tasks though he'll
tell you that Arch Mage Travel wishes to speak with you now, he has a task for
you. Seems your great achievements haven't gone unnoticied, you're getting
some serious attention around here now. Arch Mage Traven can be found upstairs
usually, so take the portal to the 2nd floor whenever you're ready to speak to
him.
*****Quest: Liberation or Apprehension?*****
Arch Mage Traven has a very important mission for you at this time. It seems
the Mages Guild sent a spy into the Necro cult in an attempt to gain more
information from them. It seemed this plan worked well at first, but recently
the information has stopped coming in. You are asked to find Mucianus Alias,
the spy for the Guild, and hopefully bring him back safely if possible. As it
turned out, the Coucil was already worried something wrong happened, and they
sent 3 Battle Mages in to get Mucianus out. Traven wants you to go to make
sure the Battle Mages do their jobs and don't jump to any conclusions about
Mucianus turning traitor on you. Your destination is Nenyond Twull, which is
located south of the Imperial City. If you don't have a Silence or Paralyze
spell by now, it may pay off to get one. If you want, take the road from Bravil
and head north, the road will almost take you right to the Ruins you're
looking for. You'll pass two inns along the way, one will be the Inn of Ill
Omen.
When you get to the ruins, the first thing you'll run into is one of the Battle
Mages...and he doesn't seem to be in the best of spirits. It looks like hes
pretty certain Mucianus has turned traitor, and hes pretty paranoid about the
situation hes already in. After getting a little jumpy with you and
explaining what has gone on so far, he asks you to accompany him back into the
Ruins to bring Macianus out and escape quickly. Well, don't follow too closely
behind him, you may find yourself a little flatter if you do. Avoid the trap
as best you can, you can usually dash to the little cubbies on either side of
the trap before it launches itself back into the air, then when it comes back
down run to the other side. The rest of the dungeon is pretty straight forward
as usual. There will be a lot of Necroes inside, and once again they LOVE to
run from your awesome might, and at the same time infuriate you. This can get
very dangerous fast though, they can easily get away from you and bring help if
you're not careful. I suggest trying to Paralyze them if you can, which should
help your odds a bit, or at least Silence them to keep them from casting on
you or summoning. If you have a blade and some decent strength, you can
usually bring down the Necroes fairly easy, if they're not running for their
lives. They like to heal, so when they get low on life try and finish them
off quick, or hit them with another Silence spell to avoid it.
Halfway through the dungeon you'll find a door with a White Tree on it. On the
other side you'll meet a woman whom you can deduce is the leader of this
particular group of Necroes in this lair. She isn't very tough, but she talks
a mean talk. Use the same strategy on her that you've used on the other
Necroes. Keep pressing forward, in the next room you'll probably have to take
on 2 or 3 creatures at at time. I had a clumped group, a Necro, Wraith, and
Skeleton Hero. If you run into the same pairing, my best suggestion is to
try and take out the Necro quick with some powerful spells, or your staff.
After that, run towards the door to this area to heal up, the Skeleton will
probably follow. You can blast him with your staff if you want, these guys
are usually pretty tough. Hopefully the Wraith didn't follow you to the door,
if he didn't then once you finish off the Skeleton it'll be a one on one
battle which shouldn't be too bad. After this battle, there should only be
one more thing to left to do...find Mucianus.
If you look ahead, there will be a button on the wall, push it and
it will lead to a room with a zombie...err...Mucianus. Apparantly he either
decided the zombie life sounded fun, or the Necroes turned him against his
will. Thanks to Skuess I found out you don't have to kill Mucianus to beat
this quest, although you can if you want to. Talk to Mucianus and your quest
should update, but if you'd rather rid the world of another zombie, just keep
reading. Mucianus has a LOT of life, that or his skin is super thick.
This was a tough battle for me, as I found myself resorting to my Mage
Staff an awful lot. My best suggestion is to run him up and down the hallway
you used to get to him. Blast him with spells while walking backwards,
then run around and let your Magicka refill while you wait. Heal when you
need to, just keep blasting him while you're walking back. Eventually he'll
drop, and your quest will update, telling you to head back to the Arch Mage.
Before you go, don't forget to get the Varla Stones in their little Iron
Cages, they can be found on the walkway to Mucianus. Thanks to Jester again.
You can use the door to the left before Mucianus's chamber to exit quickly.
One thing you should remember when exiting...don't forget about the trap in
the beginning of this ruin! On the way out I ran into one more running Necro
that activated the switch to open the short-cut, and its almost as if he tried
to lead me to the trap...he ran right over it himself. If I haven't already
said it, be sure to save frequently and on different files =) Wouldn't want to
die at the end and you haven't saved since you entered the place.
Head back to the Arcane University and speak with Traven. He'll be sorry to
hear about Mucianus and the many lives that were lost today. He'll tell you
to go talk to our buddy Raiminus downstairs about Advancement before speaking
to him again. Raiminus will promote you to the Warlock status, and you now
have access to the Council Chambers whenever you see fit to use them. When
you're ready for your next mission, speak to Traven again.
*****Quest: Information at a Price*****
Speak to Traven once more, and he'll let you know that Count Janus Hassildor
has requested an audience with you. It appears since hes dealt with you once
before, he trusts you and so he asks you to be the Guild's representative. It
appears he has some valueable information, so when you're ready travel to
Skingrad to speak with him.
When you get to the castle, look for the Count's new steward, an Argonian named
Hal-Liurz, so you may contact the Count. She will send for him, just wait in
the County Hall for him to arrive. When you meet with the Count, he lets you
know that he has a bit of a problem that he needs tending to before he'll
release any information. Great, something important we need to know, and hes
going to make us run odd jobs for him first. As it turns out, a nest of
vampires has sprung up very close to Castle Skingrad, apparantly these punks
have nothing to do with Hassildor. They aren't a big threat to the Count
directly, but it seems word has been sent out of these new vampires, and a
group of vampire hunters have been reportedly snooping around town. The Count
could wipe them all out himself, but he cannot expose his secret to his town,
so by interfering with either it could jeopardize his position. The only info
the Count provides about the hunters is they are somewhere in town, and one of
their names is Elidor. You must find a way to eliminate the vampires so they
do not draw anymore attention to Skingrad, and you have to eliminate the
hunters as well. You can kill the hunters if the guards don't catch you, or
run them out of town. I prefer pitting each side against each other first, and
then mopping up the victors =)
Head into the town of Skingrad first and look for the leader of the hunters,
Elidor. You can find him near the church more than likely, just watch your
quest arrows and try each of them out if you can't find him. Speak with him,
and he probably won't provide much information at first, and won't be
willing to trust you. I boosted my disposition with him by persuasion, and
then was able to tell him that the vampires are located in the Bloodcrust
Cavern. Don't worry about talking to Elidor's other lackies, they don't seem
to care what you have to say. When you're done, head to the Bloodcrust Cavern
which is just south-east of Skingrad Castle. Make a new save just in case.
Instead of heading in gung-ho, I decided to give Elidor and his party time to
catch up to me. I also hoped waiting till morning would make the battle
easier by pulling the vampires outside (It doesn't, they don't seem to be
affected by the sunlight). After waiting 10 hours or so, I went ahead and
entered the cavern, it was around 9 or 10AM I believe. By this time, Elidor
and his party has wiped out nearly half of the vampires, which was a decent
accomplishment since there were only 4 hunters. About the time I entered the
cavern, Elidor and his party finally bit the dust. This will complete one
of your mission objectives, getting rid of the hunters (And you didn't have to
do a thing!). Next we have to finish off the remaining vampires, and the ones
I ran into at my level had some tough gear. The good thing about vampires is
they don't seem to like fire too much, and being good little Mages we should
have a few fire spells handy. I was able to waste the remaining vampires in
the cave by either using melee attacks, or using our Weak Fireball spell to
burn them down quickly. Once the vampires have all been slain, your quest
should be complete, return to Castle Skingrad.
Speak with Hal-Liurz again so you may get in contact with the Count again.
When he returns downstairs, he'll thank you for completing your work and he'll
fill you in on the information he received. It seems the very powerful Necro
named Mannimarco has made his way back to Cyrodiil, and has a vendetta against
the Mages Guild. This guy is also known as the "King of Worms" and is thought
to be all but invincible. Wonderful! Head back to the Arcane University to
break the bad news.
Traven is well aware who Mannimarco is, and is very troubled that hes been
spotted in Cyrodiil. He needs some time to think about his next course of
action, so go do some other quests if you like, go sell some of the loot from
the Bloodcrust Cavern, or just wait 48 hours and go speak to Traven again.
Before you continue on, you may want to get any spells from Bruma that you
may be wanting, because soon you may not be able to get them again. When
you're ready speak to Traven and he'll have another quest for you.
*****Quest: A Plot Revealed*****
When you next speak to Traven, he'll let you know hes worried about the Guild
Chapter in Bruma. Our good friend Jeanne there hasn't been coming by the
Arcane University lately for her butt-kissing, and its making Traven a bit
worried. Since you are available, he wants you to head there and check
things out for him. Travel that way, and pop in the Guild Hall.
As soon as you walk in, you'll notice disarray and probably some Wraiths or
other undead creatures roaming about. Its a sure bet that this place was hit
by Necromancers, so begin searching for any survivors. I ran into several
Wraiths myself total, you may encounter more or less. You won't be able to
get to Jeanne's room from the left doorway, you'll notice its blocked by a
flaming bookshelf. You'll have to take the long route through the basement
and back up the stairs. Head to the right once you've cleared the floor, and
head on down to the basement.
You'll find a few of those undead I mentioned down here, but they're usually
well spaced out, so I didn't have any problems taking them on one by one.
If you have any problems, bring them upstairs or outside to try and seperate
them. No survivors yet, so once you get to the other side head upstairs and
head to Jeanne's room. You'll soon be greated by a friendly Necromancer that
lets you know you missed the party again, and the "Guest of Honor" has already
left (Meaning the King of Worms). She'll then attempt to beat you down. You
can try to paralyze her and/or silence her if you wish, shes another one of
those running Necro types. If I can get them to stay still for a second, their
cloth robes make it easy to melee attack, so sometimes a nice dagger can cut
well if you use a blade now and then.
When you finish off the Necro, J'ksar will come out of the shadows. It seems
his invisibility spell was good for something other than playing tricks. He'll
tell you that the Guild was attacked by Mannimarco, and there were no other
survivors. He'll mumble something about Echo Cave, and that the Mages Guild is
doomed. It seems Mannimarco could see J'ksar, but let him live so he could
deliver this message. Send J'ksar away so he can seek protection from Traven
in the Imperial City, then prepare to head back that way yourself so you can
give the news.
Traven will be astonished the Necroes have directly attacked a Guild Hall
already, and doesn't understand why they're doing this now (Uhhh, would it have
anything to do with him banning Necromancy?). Anyway, Traven will tell you to
go speak with Raiminus to advance your title again, so go downstairs and do so.
Raiminus will make you a Wizard, and bestow you will a spell called the
Wizard's Fury. This may be a leveled spell, the one I received required 50 in
Destruction to cast it, and it did 5 pts of Fire Damage for 10 seconds, 16
Frost Damage to a Target, and 16 Lightning Damage to a Target. Go speak to
Traven once more and he'll have more for you to do, two more things that is.
You can do either of his two quests you want, in any order. I'll start with
the Bloodworm Helm first.
*****Quest: The Bloodworm Helm*****
As I mentioned, you can do this quest first, or you can do the Necromancer's
Amulet and come back to it. Either way, you'll have to do it sooner or later,
so I'll start off with this one. When you next speak to Traven, he'll let you
know that the Council is now in an uproar over the recent events that have
befallen the Guild. In the state of craziness, some Guild members believed
that by studying some ancient Necromancer items, the Guild could benefit from
the knowledge and use it against their enemy. As it turned out, our old
friend Irlav took the Bloodworm Helm to Fort Teleman to study it, and the
Lady Caranya took the Necromancer's Amulet to Fort Ontus. Tell Traven you
will retrieve these items, lets start with the Helm first. The fort you'll
go to is crawling with summoned creatures of all kinds, including Necroes, so
be prepared for some tough battles.
Fort Teleman can be found east of Bravil and Leyawiin, the latitude of the
fort lies somewhere between the two towns. If you have found Veyond before,
you can travel from there to get to the fort quicker. Once inside, you'll
soon run into all sorts of opposition. Our friendly Necro friends will like
to run away as always, Silence and/or Paralyze will help greatly here. Also,
if you're any good with the Sneak ability, you can often come up behind them
and hit them with a one handed blade for 6x Sneak damage. Lately I've been
using a nice Ebony Shortsword with an enchantment of 20 fire damage to my
attacks, it works wonders (It was a random drop in the Bloodcrust Cavern).
Make your way through the first level of the fort, watch out for the Storm
and Fire Atronach's if you run into any, they can be tough. Eventually you'll
find a door to the next level of the fort, head through. You'll eventually
come to a large misty room with two paths, one to the right, one to the left.
The one to the right will lead to a shortcut back to the first floor, the left
will lead you to Irlav.
Head down the path, following the tunnels to your green quest arrow. You'll
have to battle through more Necroes, sometimes you won't have to because the
summoned beasts in the fort will take care of them. Eventually you'll find
a dark room, with Irlav's corpse in the middle, and possibly a large Daedra
in the middle. This guy was called Dremora Markynaz when I encountered him,
and he was no pushover. He had a nasty two handed magic sword he liked to use,
although he'll probably have something different when you encounter him. Do
your best to fight off his advances, summon a creature if you need a tank to
take damage for you. Blast him with your wand from a distance if you can,
its better not to be in close range of his sword. When you finish him off,
check out Irlav and pick up the Helm off his body. One task is finished, head
back to that misty room I mentioned earlier and take the other path for a short
cut to the first floor. From there, drop on down and exit through the front
door and head back to Traven in the Arcane University. Traven will ask you
which item you brought, tell him you have the Bloodworm Helmet. He'll put it
away for safekeeping and ask that you head on back out to retrieve the
Necromancer Amulet.
*****Quest: The Necromancer Amulet*****
The quest may be easier than the last one, but may require more traveling. If
you don't already have one, this may be a good time to invest in a horse for
a quick travel option to places you haven't visited yet. Bruma has some cheap
ones for 500g, but Cheydinhal has a fast Black horse for 5000g I believe. You
don't need a horse, but it can come in handy sometimes. When you're ready to
head to Fort Ontus and find Caranya, head to Chorrol to begin your expedition.
Fort Ontus is located south-west of Chorrol, or north-west from the Black
Flats Cave if you've been there. Travel through the wilderness and eventually
you'll arrive at your destination. Inside, you'll be surprised to find no
Necromancers or summoned creatures at all! It seems many of the Mages that
have defected with Caranya are here, to study the Amulet's properties. They
won't be hostile to you, so take this time to do some map making and scour
the ruins. Check every inch of the place and loot all the treasure chests, be
sure to find both doors to the next level of the fort, and follow the hallways
to find where they meet up on the other side. You'll find Caranya while you
do this, but avoid speaking with her till you've been through the whole fort.
Once you're ready, speak with her.
You'll soon find out that Caranya has gone slightly insane, and is going to
present the Amulet to the King of Worms to increase his power! This is not a
good thing...so you know what you must do. When shes finished spouting her
madness, prepare to battle her. I didn't have too many problems with her
myself, hopefully you'll be able to drop her easily. I used my enchanted
fire sword on her and she died in no time, although a good attack spell or
your staff should suffice nicely. When shes dead, take the Necromancer's
Amulet from her body. With her death, the whole place will now be hostile
to you (Thats why I suggested exploring first). You can wipe the whole fort
out if you feel like it, but I decided to take the fast route out since the
Mages had no good gear to offer. When you go to exit the fort, I suggest
taking the western door on your map, because it leads to the front door
quicker than the other exit does, and there may be fewer enemies you need to
go through, but thats all up to you. I found Mages rather weak compared to the
Necroes we've fought previously, and they don't seem to run away like they do
either. This makes the battles much easier and shorter. Take out the Mages
on your way out of the building, I was able to 1-shot many of them by sneaking
up and hitting them with my fire blade for 6x Sneak damage. Get to the front
door and high-tail it back to Traven when you're ready.
When you get back to the Arcane University, speak with Traven right away so
you can get the Necromancer's Amulet off your hands. He'll thank you again,
and will be shocked to hear of Caranya's betrayal. Before he can offer you
anymore quests, he'll ask you to speak to Raiminus about Advancement. Head
downstairs and Raiminus will make you a Master-Wizard, which is the highest
position you can hold aside from Arch-Master, congrats! Speak with Traven
again when you're ready to continue.
*****Quest: Ambush*****
Traven has recently found out some very important information. From contacts
such as our beloved Count, he has discovered that the Necroes have fashioned
a Colossol Black Soul Gem in the south, and are preparing to deliver it to
the King of Worms soon. Battle Mages have already been sent to the site, known
as Silorn, to try and capture this Soul Gem before it can be delivered. Your
job is to go there and oversee the attack and ensure that you bring the Soul
Gem back so it can be studied and used against Mannimarco. Head to Skingrad
now, or the Bloodcrust Cavern south-east of Castle Skingrad. From there,
Silorn can be found to the south-east.
When you arrive, you can find the Battle Mages waiting outside. It seems they
have already attempted to storm the ruins, but were met with opposition and
they lost one of their members. The door to the ruins is now enchanted and
cannot be opened. You need to position each of the 3 Battle Mages according to
their strengths, and then storm the front gate and take out any Necroes you
find in hopes of finding a way to open the door and lessen their numbers.
Personally, I made all of them stay back, but you could probably put the guy
skilled in axes up near the front. I kept all three of them back, then I
pulled the Necroes one by one to them, and they hacked each one up very nicely.
Our old friend Falcar will be outside, he'll tuck tail and run into the ruins,
opening the door for you. Once all the Necromancers have been slain outside,
you'll have to follow him in alone to retrieve the Colossol Black Soul Gem.
*UPDATE* If you're sneaky and/or use some invisibility, I'm told it is
possible to knock Falcar down and steal the Colossol Black Soul Gem off of
him, quick means you don't have to go into Silorn at all! Thanks to the
person that messaged me about this.
Once you're inside, you may notice you'll have a red quest arrow to your west
on the map, disregard it!! You cannot get to this point at this time, there is
a door that is remotely locked and you have to decend to the next level before
you can unlock it. Many, many people keep e-mailing me about this door, you
will open it later, so just don't worry about it now, keep following the guide.
So, make your way to the south-west point on the map, which
should lead to Silorn Sedorseli. On your way, you may want to stop in the
south-eastern section of the map, still on the first floor of Silorn. You'll
find a Ayleid Reliquary which is currently inaccessable. If you get here, look
at the statue directly to the south. Behind it will be a button, if you push
it, a hidden wall will drop down giving you access to the chest. There may be
some nice items inside for you, which may be helpful against the Necroes inside
the ruin. When you're done, be sure to take the doorway to Silorn Sedorseli.
Slash your way through the Necroes on the first floor, pushing your way to the
south-west. You'll find a door to the Silorn Sedorseli, take it. You'll find
more Necroes here, sometimes in pairs of two possibly. If you come to a room
with Welkynd Stones in a bowl, you'll notice on your map there is a hidden
door in the southern part of the room. If you look at the southern pillar in
this room, it will open the door and allow you to pick up some nice treasures.
You can find some nice Varla Stones in this hidden area, they'll be up on
some pedistals (Just look for the large glowing stones). These can be used to
recharge your magical items. You can also find another Ayleid chest in the
water, as well as a few along the walls. Eventually you'll come to a floor
tile which opens a path back to the main hallway, and toward your quest
objective. Once you're back on the right track, head north and follow the
hallways till you come to a large room with water and a few gates. Step on
the floor tile to open the gates, kill the Necro on the other side. You'll
probably see a path ahead of you, and one to the right. The path to the right
is useless really, it leads to a set of stairs that goes into the water,
basically an escape if you happen to jump in the water of the previous room.
There is a junk chest underwater, but it really isn't worth your time. Anyway,
the other path will lead back to the first floor of Silorn, take that instead.
You'll be back on the first floor, in the southern part of the zone. Straight
ahead you'll find a button, hit that and the remote doors we couldn't open
earlier will finally open up. You can now walk through them, and follow your
red quest arrow once more. You'll now be in Silorn Buroseli, where Falcar has
retreated to. This area is pretty small, theres only one Necro you have to
go through before you confront Falcar. In the second room of the zone, before
you actually find Falcar, you'll notice a large cage suspended in the middle
of the room, and to the right you'll find a button on a pillar. If you hit
the button, the cage will rise up and reveal another Varla stone, pick it up
and continue on. Falcar will be shortly after this, right around the corner.
He prefers to fight melee against you, and he'll probably have a decent
weapon to try to keep your distance. Blast him with all you have, when he
dies be sure to grab the Colossol Black Soul Gem off his body. Now its time
to get out of here, you have two options. You can go back the way you came,
or you can go through the Silorn Buroseli a little further for a short-cut.
Please note that there were a bunch of undead (Including a Nether Lich) just
past Falcar, and they are bunched kind of tight in just one room. If you
finish them off, the Lich may have a nice staff in his possession, and there
are some more nice Ayleid chests in this room, but the choice is up to you.
If you clear the room, be sure to hit a button there which will open up the
secret exit on the first floor of Silorn. Take the 2nd doorway out of Silorn
Buroseli, then breeze on out of the the first floor of Silorn.
Speak to Thalfin to let her know that you picked up the Soul Gem, she'll tell
you to hurry back to Traven. Make your way back to the Arcane University and
hand him the Colossol Black Soul Gem. He'll thank you, and he'll say he needs
a moment before he gives you your final task. I would use this time to sell
any excess loot you have, recharge all your magical items, train any spell
schools you may use frequently (Such as Destruction and Restoration), and learn
or create any new spells you may want for your final task. When you're ready,
speak to Traven for the last time.
*****Quest: Confront the King*****
Speak to Traven, and he'll tell you the time has come to finish off Mannimarco.
You must do this alone, but the rewards will be great (Or mild at best, at any
rate you're saving the Mages Guild and many others). Traven tells you to seek
Mannimarco out in the Echo Caves, located to the north, west of Bruma. He
then tells you that this will be the last time you will speak, and hes making
you the new Arch-Mage of the Guild! You won't officially take the title till
you return from your quest. Then, Traven will use the Colossal Black Soul Gem
and cast Soul Trap and a fire spell on himself, effectively sealing his soul
in the Colossal Black Soul Gem. Make sure you look Traven's body to get this,
as well as anything else on him. It seems you do need that Black Soul Gem,
even though you won't actively use it. I've read in the forums if you don't
have it when you face Mannimarco, you'll be turned into a zombie, I've also
read there is something you can do to the Soul Stone to make it useable for
enchantments. I have verified you DON'T get turned into a zombie if you don't
have it in your possession when you face off with Mannimarco, but you need it
to update your quest, otherwise you'll never be able to finish it. I actually
played around and went straight to Mannimarco without getting the Soul Stone
first, and he'll act like a normal NPC and won't approach you, but he'll still
drop the Staff of Worms =) The rumor that the Colossal Black Soul Gem can be
used for enchantments is false to my knowledge, I have yet to see any info
where you can modify it for use. Its really just a quest item you need to
get to Mannimarco, if you don't have it you won't be able to get the key to
open the Echo Caverns (The guy won't spawn) and Mannimarco won't speak with
you.
Anyway, head to the Echo Cavern when you're ready. Outside you'll run into
Bolor Savel, a Necro. He'll probably have some words for you, after that you'll
have to slay him to get the key he possesses. Use the key to open the way
forward. The Echo Caverns are very linear and easy to follow, theres just a
lot of Necromancers and undead obstacles keeping you from getting to the King.
Theres nothing to say here really, you may run into some circumstances where
you'll find 2 Necroes at a time, just use your tried and true tactics to take
them out, use your staff when necessary. Eventually you'll come to the third
level of the Echo Caverns, called the Echo Necromancer Cavern. This is where
you'll find Mannimarco. If you just arrived there, you'll find him through
the first door on your right, and across a thin land bridge over some water.
Mannimarco should approach you and wish to speak, go ahead and let him unless
you'd rather try and sneak behind him for a Sneak Attack. He'll tell you he
wants your soul, was hoping Traven was there instead (He is, in a way, heh),
and blabber about some other things. Now its killin' time! If you were
expecting a tough, hard battle with the King of Worms, you may be sadly let
down. It seems for many tough Mages, Mannimarco is quite the unexpected
push over. In any case, try to Silence him if you can, and fear any undead
creatures he may spawn. Blast away at him with your Destruction magic, and
go to your staff when you run out of Magicka. He should fall quickly, and
he likes to melee so you don't have to chase him around. I've also seen that
if you cast a water breathing spell on yourself, and lead him into the water,
Mannimarco will actually drown himself =)
In any case, the King of Worms is now dead, congrats! Take the Staff of Worms
from him, and anything else on his body. You can now return to the Mages Guild
and tell Raiminus of your victory. I thought it would be fun to use the staff
on Mannimarco himself and lead him back through the cave to the surface, but I
got bored and decided not to take him all the way to the Imperial City, heh.
Speak with Raiminus at the Arcane University, and he'll fully recognize you as
new Arch-Mage of the Guild, along with any benefits that entails. You'll have
access to the Arch-Mage's room and the possessions within. He'll also give you
a quick quest to go speak to Julienne Fanis in the Lustratorium there in the
University, make sure you do so as she tells you some valuable information.
Congrats again on finishing the Mages Guild quests! If you want some info on
what you can do as Arch-Mage, check out the Misc section.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Miscellaneous
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
*****Benefits to Becoming Arch-Master*****
Once you become Arch-Master, theres a few things you're entitled to that you
normally can't do as a regular Mage. First off, you have access to the old
Arch-Mage's room and everything included within.
After you talk to Raiminus, you should also get a quest called Alchemy
Acquisitions. All you have to do is talk to Julienne Fanis in the
Lustratorium, and she'll tell you what you can do with the Enchanted
Chest in the Arch-Mage bedroom. Basically, take any ingredient (Armor
and weapons won't work), place it in the chest, wait 24 hours, and then
return to the chest. When you do, the item will have increased from 1 to
11. Be sure to take them out soon, because if you leave them there
for a week, they'll disappear. The chest may only be used once a week.
You can also have a Mage Apprentice follow you around and help you in battle!
Speak to one inside the Arcane University, and certain ones will have the
option to say "Follow Me." Apprentice Mages will fast travel with you to
locations and back you up in fights. I have a humerous screen shot of the
first battle I encountered with my Apprentice, we ran into a bandit and the
Apprentice got an arrow lodged in the top of his head. Just imagine someone
firing an arrow straight down at the top of your head =)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
FAQ
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Q1) Help! I've been suspended from the Mage's Guild and I need to collect 20
Dragon's Tongues and 20 Redwort Flowers! Where can I find these?
A1) Wow, I'm getting A LOT of questions about this, and I haven't even
finished the guide yet! What are you people doing to get kicked out of
the guild like this? I strongly suggest to use your Save/Load features
=) Anyway, I haven't been able to dig up much, but hopefully this will
be helpful.
I've looked through the Oblivion boards, and it seems you
can find Dragon's Tongue around Fort Redwater near the Black Marsh
border. They can also be found north-east of Leyawiin. Supposidly theres
some in the West Weald area, between Skingrad and Bravil as well.
Redwort Flowers are found south-east of the Fieldhouse Cave by Leyawiin,
near the Black Marsh border again. Some more is found near the Ayleid Ruins
of Wendelbek and Morahame, along the eastern coast of Niben Bay, along the
Panther River. Some may be scattered about the West Weald.
I've also seen that you can by a few of these in Skingrad in the shop called
All Things Alchemical. For those of you that don't care about cheating, the
console commands for PC are below, but I encourage doing the quest yourself
since you got yourself into this mess, heh heh:
player.additem 0002503A "20"
player.additem 00025039 "20"
For Xbox users, you can use the item dupe to get more than one if you want
to cheat that way. To do this, equip any set of arrows. Then draw back
on your bow and hold it. Press "B" to go to the inventory screen. Click
on the arrows you have equipted with "A," then on any other set of arrows
you have and hit "A" twice. Now just drop either a Redwort Flower or a
Dragon's Tongue and the item will dupe. Thanks to Tom W. for letting me
know Xbox users can dupe these =)
*UPDATE* I played around with this, and it seems for your first offense,
you only need either the Redwort Flowers OR the Dragon's Tongues to fix
your standing, but for the second offense you'll need both. If you're
smart and save often on different files, you won't have to worry about it!
Q2) Help! I've been suspended from the Mage's Guild and I need to collect 20
Daedra Hearts and 20 Vampire Dusts! Where can I find these?
A2) This is the same quest as the one above, but its scaled for higher
level players. In the event you are kicked from the Guild and run into
this, please note this may be a quest typo! It seems people have been able
to turn in EITHER 20 Daedra Hearts or 20 Vampire Dust to complete it, so it
seems you only need one or the other. Notice, if you get suspended from
the Guild after becomming Arch-Master, you CAN use the Enchanted Chest to
turn 1 Daedra Heart or Vampire Dust into 11, and then do it again when the
chest is next ready. As far as where to get them, there are quite a few
locations.
Daedra Hearts can be bought from many shops that carry Alchemy products, so
make your way around various cities to find these. Oblivion Gates are a
great way to do this as well, if you haven't closed them all yet. You can
find some in Fathis's tower in Bravil (You'll need to take the secret
entrance in his room in the castle). By far, most people seem to be able
to find these the easiest, so try to just collect 20 of these and not worry
about the Vampire Dust, but if you really want to...
Vampire Dust can be found in the Bloodcrust Cavern south-east of Castle
Skingrad, if you haven't done the quest already. You may be able to clear
the cave again anyway, not sure if they respawn or not. There are several
forts where you can find vampires too, these would be:
Fort Hastrel – just north of Kvatch
Fort Vlastarius – east of Skingrad
Memorial Cave – east of the Arcane University
Crowhaven Castle – north-west of Anvil
Fort Carmala – south of Chorrol
Under Arena Bloodworks in the Imperial City
Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary in Cheydinhal
Redwater Slough – East of Bravil
Hopefully thats enough locations for you. If you want the short-cut method
to get by this, and you're using the PC, here are the codes for you lazy,
rule breaking bums ;-) Xbox users can use the dupe in the first answer
if they want to dupe the dust and hearts
player.additem 0001EC8F "20"
player.additem 00009182 "20"
*UPDATE* I played around with this, and it seems for your first offense,
you only need either the Daedra Hearts OR the Vampire Dusts to fix
your standing, but for the second offense you'll need both. If you're
smart and save often on different files, you won't have to worry about it!
Q3) Can I be a part of the Mages Guild and be a part of another Guild at the
same time?
A3) Yes! I'm part of the Thieves and Mages Guilds at this time, and plan
on moving on to the Fighters Guild after that =)
Q4) Can I make my own spells?
A4) See Tip #6 at the top of the guide =)
Q5) I have the amulet for Dagail for the Leyawiin recommendation, but I can't
finish the quest! Whats wrong?
A5) Part of this is a bug in the quest, but more often that not you killed
Kalthar before he got a chance to speak. It seems even if you have the
amulet, but drop Kalthar before he speaks, you can't finish the quest, and
whats worse the door will be locked and you can't re-enter. In most cases
all you can do at this time is reload =( Hope you're using Tips 1 & 2 of
this guide.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Credits
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I give credit to the first person that helps me fix or improve my guide with
any relevant information. If someone else beat you to it, I'm sorry =(
*Thanks to GameFaqs for posting this guide.
*Thank you Bethesda for making such a great game.
*Thanks to the people on Bethesda's Oblivion board for tips on the Dragon's
Tongue and Redwort locations.
*Thanks to Andrew Yin for helping me find out the Mage Staves you get on the
Mage Staff quest are level related.
*Thanks to Brent Vella for first pointing out I had Bravil listed twice in the
Join Mages Guild section.
*Thanks to Caffo for pointing out first that you don't need to do the quest
"Through the Nightmare, Darkly" to get the recommendation from Kud-ei, also
for pointing out you don't need to actually carry the Ring of Burden.
*Thanks to Nexus for pointing out another way to complete the Chorrol
Recommendation quest.
*Thanks to Nate for providing info about the key to Soris's house in Imp. City
*Thanks to Gul Cratt for many little typos and little corrections I needed =)
*Thanks to Sander Land for a little more info about the Mage Staffs
*Thanks to Skuess for first pointing out you don't have to fight the zombie
*Thanks to mjwatson for letting me know you can buy the staff off Soris
*Thanks to *********** for more info about the chest for the pillar quest
*Thanks to Sasha Van Eijk for a little more info about some leveled beasts
*Thanks to Tom W. for the loads of info he has provided, not just Mage related
*Thanks to BMoney for a pic on where you can get back on the island in the
Mage Staff quest.
*Thanks to Jester for info about the Worm Anchorite in the Dark Fissure, and
for the Varla Stones in Liberation, or Apprehension
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Copyright Notice
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This piece of work is copyright Nick Bartosic c)2006. If you want to add this
to your site, please contact me for permission first. All information written
has come from me alone, unless otherwise specified. This information may not
be sold without permission. If you wish to use any part of this guide in your
own FAQ or Walkthrough, just send me an e-mail.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Contact Info
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
At this time I'm disabling contact info again. I'm just receiving too much
mail from people, and even though I've replied to nearly all of it, I just
don't have the time anymore in my busy schedule to tackle it all, update the
FAQ, and still take care of the rl business. A good portion of the e-mails
can be solved simply by reading a little further in the guide, checking out the
FAQ section, or just trying a few new things in the game. I also get a lot of
e-mails regarding information on quests not related to the Mages Guild, about
unrelated items, or "tips" that are nothing more than info from the guide
reworded. If you have a legitamate question, do yourself a favor and check out
the Oblivion boards at Elderscrolls.com, chances are when you do encounter a
problem, you can get an answer there much quicker than you can from me by
e-mail. Sorry to be like this, but with the little free time I've had in the
last week, I haven't even been able to launch the game =P